Philadelphia, Here I Come! Book

I'm always hesitant of buying a play. 12 euro for 90 half-filled pages? Dubious. But then an 60-ish man who saw me turning Philadelphia, Here I Come! over in my hands, debating, said "lad, you'll be wanting to get that one. I've seen it performed five times now, and it's just magic. The first thing to read if you want to know about mid-century Ireland." On that recommendation, who could possibly refuse?

Long story short, it was fantastic advice. The Public/Private division never feels like a literary gimmick - on the contrary, it one feels that they have a much more authentic picture of the man, and it contributes to the play's amazing ability to capture such complex, sometimes contradicting feelings in so small a space. The play is funny, it's frustrated, and if the picture it paints isn't perfectly faithful to the atmosphere of mid-century Ireland, well, it sure fooled me. And that awesome 60-ish man, to whom I owe a pint.